MENTAL OVER-WORK AMOJnTt PUBLIC MEN. 13 



moreover, is in itself a form of braiii work ; to worry means to 

 cerebrate intensely. 



Two clergymen, both of whom were compelled to do severe 

 mental work, and at the same time sustain grave responsibilities, 

 were the only representatives of theology in my list of cases. 

 Chance may not have thrown a fair proportion of mentally over- 

 worked clergymen within my reach, but this small number is prob- 

 ably not entirely accidental. Many clergymen suffer from the 

 symptoms of a mild but annoying form of neurasthenia, but com- 

 paratively few succumb completely to mental over-work. Their un- 

 usual longevity is well known. Sherwood's statistics have already 

 been quoted. Their variety of toil, their comparative freedom from 

 financial anxiety, their superior mental endowments, and their tem- 

 perance and morality are the reasons assigned by Beard, and I 

 believe correctly, for the greater longevity of clergymen than of 

 other brain workers. 



Of the four journalists, three were engaged upon the highest 

 order of journalistic work. The work done by editors and leader- 

 writers often calls for the severest intellectual effort under pressure. 

 The writer of leading articles will probably average two or more 

 columns daily. His matter must be interesting and forcible ; facts 

 must be rapidly obtained and marshalled; judgments on important 

 topics must be formed instantaneously. Often the brain must be 

 goaded to do work against the mental grain. The work must be done, 

 and must be done on time ; there is no putting off to o. more convenient 

 season. Editors, moreover, often do their work under bad hygienic 

 conditions — at night, in the glare and heat of gas, sometimes in badly 

 ventilated rooms. One of my patients suffered so much from in- 

 somnia, cervico-occipital pain, nervous dyspepsia, and other symp- 

 toms, distinctly traceable to his work and mode of life, that he 

 finally left journalism entirely. Two others were forced tempo- 

 rarily to quit their labors. 



Scientific work is, as a rule, conservative rather than destructive 

 of health. The scientist, unlike the journalist, is not usually com- 



